1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of textile manufacturing, and more particularly but not by way of limitation, to equipment for the removal of moisture from textile products.
2. Discussion
In the manufacture of textile products, which are usually processed in long webs of varying widths, the textile material must be passed through a wash cycle to remove excess dye products and other accumulated substances, and following the wash cycle, the textile product must be dried. Numerous prior art devices have been operated with varying degrees of effectiveness, most of which have become near obsolete as the cost of energy has increased traumatically worldwide during the last few years. As energy has become more determinative of equipment function, different approaches to dryer designs have attempted to increase the operating efficiency while maintaining a reasonable balance of equipment investment.
Examples of recent prior art dryer designs may be found in the following patents: U.S. No. 3,955,287 subjects a carpet web to an initial high temperature air stream as the web enters the initial drying region, after which the carpet passes through another drying region that is maintained at a lower temperature; U.S. No. 3,743,474 subjects the entering carpet web to a high velocity of exhausting air, and as the web continues through the machine, low velocity heated air is recirculated through the web; and U.S. No. 3,849,904 passes a carpet web through a series of four chambers, paired such that the first and third chambers, and the second and fourth chambers, operate to force air down through the traveling web, and independent heat recovery systems operate to extract energy from the exhausted air.